High-order mode lasing in all-FMF laser cavities

We experimentally demonstrate two kinds of all few-mode fiber (FMF) ring lasers with high-order mode (HOM) oscillation in the laser cavity. One kind is a switchable-wavelength all-FMF HOM laser with an output of tunable optical vortex beams (OVBs); the other is a Q-switched all-FMF HOM laser with an output of pulsed cylindrical vector beams (CVBs). The lasers are composed of all-FMF components and few-mode erbium-doped fiber. A Sagnac interferometer made of a 3 dB FMF coupler functions as the wavelength selector, and switchable multiwavelength tunable OVBs are experimentally realized. Carbon nanotube-based saturable absorbers and the nonlinear polarization rotation technique are used to achieve Q-switched CVB lasers. This is the first report, to our knowledge, on the generation of switchable-wavelength and Q-switched HOM beams in all-FMF laser cavities. (C) 2018 Chinese Laser Press